The Death of Marlene McKinnon
by insurmountablefears
Summary: Marlene McKinnon (d. July 1981) was a member of the Order of the Phoenix during the First Wizarding War. Before the end of the war, she was murdered by Death Eaters along with her family. (I am not J.K. Rowling and this is the fulfillment of a promise for a friend. MarlenexCaradoc and OCs are a part of this story.)
1. Part one

**30 July 1981.** The rain was lashing against the outside of the flat with an anger that had increased threefold from the earlier hours of the day. With a steaming cup of hot cocoa, Marlene was curled up on the sofa in front of the window, staring out into the gloomy distance. It had been raining a lot recently, which only worsened her nerves. More and more Order members were falling to Voldemort's Death Eaters. Marlene herself had almost lost her life once already when a small group of Death Eaters had captured her weeks before. They spent hours torturing her; she only narrowly escaped because her father had come to her rescue. It was useful at times having an Auror for a father, whose reputation still brought fear to the mind of at least a few of Voldemort's followers. After the event, both her father and Caradoc managed to convince her to stay put for the time being, at least long enough for her father to hunt down those who had tortured her. Mindlessly, her fingers ran along the claw mark scars along her left arm. She could not remember what kind of creature it was, but Voldemort was enlisting dangerous magical creatures to his forces, so it could have been a number of things. Her mind floated back to the masked faces of her attackers, but she shook the memories from her thoughts before they got to her once again. Marlene set her cup on the windowsill and went back to pacing around the room as she had been doing for most of the day. Sitting for prolonged periods of time only allowed for her thoughts to run away from her.

Marlene was most often described as restless, so staying in alone was a difficult task for her. As the war raged on, Caradoc was often away for weeks at a time to keep the war hidden from as many Muggles as they could, which was increasingly difficult the more that Death Eaters attacked. This was the most difficult for Marlene. She was a member of the Order and felt as if it were her place to be out on the front lines, not cooped up for her own protection, but the thought of Caradoc out there without her was what worried her the most. She hadn't seen or heard from him for a few days now. The longer they kept him away, the less that Marlene could sleep at night. It had gotten to the point where she couldn't sleep until he was there to calm her nerves. Recurring nightmares had plagued her attempts at sleep and were only kept at bay when his arms were holding her close.

As the days added up that Marlene was kept in the flat, the more difficult it became for her to find things to keep her mind focused on. She walked back towards the bedroom and found a box of photographs under the bed. Slowly, she went through them, allowing the memories that were captured in the photographs to come flowing back to her mind. On top was the Order photo that had been taken a couple of weeks earlier. Many of the faces smiled back at her, but she knew that many of them were false fronts. Marlene pushed that photo aside, all it could do was bring the thoughts that she should be out there helping in some way. The next photo she picked up was one that Lily had sent to her the previous day. It was of little Harry, sleeping peacefully in his mother's arms. The war brought much death and destruction to the world, but even Voldemort couldn't stop new life. Tomorrow was Harry's first birthday. _Tomorrow is Harry's birthday!_ Marlene went back to the sitting room and rifled through the desk, searching for a quill and a piece of parchment.

She began writing a letter to Lily for Harry's birthday as the door behind her flung open. Her quill scratched along the length of the page, obscuring most of what she had already written, and she found herself pointing her wand at the heart of the intruder without even thinking. Through the rush of adrenaline, Marlene couldn't even remember reaching for her wand and there was a nonexistent fog covering her eyes that would not allow to see who had burst through the door. **"Marlene..."**

**"Get out."** She should have attacked instead of giving the simple order, but the slightly worried voice could only have belonged to one person, her brother Thomas. After a few silent moments, she could finally see his face, the pain on his face. She shouldn't care, but he was still her brother and she couldn't stop herself. **"Get out,"** she repeated, with more force than the first request, **"Please."** Marlene backed away, however her wand was still pointed at her brother, though her arm was wavering. After his graduation from Hogwarts, six years before Marlene's, Thomas Peregrine McKinnon had joined Voldemort in his attack against Muggles and Muggle-borns and she had not seen her brother since then. Thomas had always been distant from his family, but they never suspected that he had hated them that much. He wasn't saying anything, only staring at his younger sister with a pained expression on his face. Instead of calmly asking him to leave again, the request had come as a scream that time. With her free hand, Marlene wiped away the tears that had began to well up in her eyes. She didn't want to show him her weaknesses, but it was more difficult than she thought it would be when she saw her brother again.

**"Marlene... please..." **with reflexes faster than her own, Thomas took a grip on Marlene's wrist and Disapparated from the flat, leaving the door wide open and the rain pouring in.


	2. Part two

**"No!"** Marlene fought against her brother's hold so strongly that she fell on the floor once he had let her go. She brushed the hair from her face and looked around to see where Thomas had brought her. Their family home. The shock of seeing her brother had quickly turned to anger. **"How... dare... you?"** To Marlene, he had no right to step foot in the house where they had grown up. Thomas had left them to join Voldemort a long time ago and gave up being a part of their family. Standing there with him... the memories of their childhood only increased her anger. She tried to compose herself, letting her emotions take control would only make things worse for her, but she had kept them bottled up for too long. All at once, she felt the pain, the betrayal, the abandonment. Marlene leapt to her feet and and threw a punch that connected with his jaw. Pain traveled through her hand, but that didn't matter to her right now. She went to take another swing, but Thomas caught her arm and swung her around before she could make the hit. Marlene's attempt to wriggle out of his hold was met by his arms closing around her tighter.

**"Marlene... look."**

She shook her head violently, but he held her chin in place to make her see what he wanted her to. The doorway to the parlour... Thomas let her go when he felt her stop fighting against him. Marlene staggered over to where she saw her mother's lifeless body laying on the floor. **"No..."** She forced herself to look away, refused to believe that her mother was dead. Turning to look back at Thomas, Marlene saw the two other bodies laying on the floor near the front door. Nausea overtook her and she sunk to the floor.** "Please... no..."** Her chest felt as if it were collapsing. Her mother, her father, Finely... all of them. Dead. Her body gave her enough strength to crawl over towards her father and brother's bodies before giving up on her completely. Marlene laid on the floor next to her father and felt every part of her body quake. She began hyperventilating and could no longer feel her fingers. Through her tears and quick breathing, she could only repeat the word _no_ over and over again.

It felt as though she had laid there for hours, with Thomas only staring at her and trying to hold back his own tears. Eventually she had stopped crying and her body had calmed; however, her mind could not be put to rest. Marlene could only stare back at Thomas. Her thoughts were so jumbled that she couldn't think straight and her body felt as lifeless as the rest of her family. From the corner of her eye, Marlene saw quick movement, but couldn't find the strength to look. "Avada Kedavra!" was the only thing that she heard before she saw Thomas become limp and fall to the floor. In an effort to save her own life, her body jolted upwards and she found herself making a break for the door, but did not make it in time; she felt something hard hit the back of her head and everything went black.


End file.
